For many students at Washington University, Thanksgiving is a time for family, a rest before the crunch of finals and a much-anticipated home-cooked meal. But for others in the St. Louis community, Thanksgiving is a reminder of the coming winter and hard economic times.
University students had the opportunity to give hundreds of these St. Louis locals in need a Thanksgiving dinner at Jireh’s fifth annual Thanksgiving dinner at the West End Community Center in St. Louis on Thursday, a week before the national holiday.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2008 11 percent of the population in the metropolitan area of St. Louis lives in poverty, while 22.4 percent of the population in the central city area lives in poverty. Jireh’s provides relief to this sector of the population at times when many are in need of something to be thankful for.
This year, the group served 250 people, 150 more than the number attending the first Jireh’s meal in 2004. The Thanksgiving dinner program featured a sit-down meal, performances by youth who attend the community center, music, a raffling of turkeys and a bag of Thanksgiving-related groceries for each child in attendance.
The Congress of the South 40 and Lock and Chain Honorary hosted a potluck dinner as a fundraiser for the event, and the Office of Student Activities and the African and African-American Studies department were also major financial donors. The program has been building a base of sponsors through grassroots efforts since its establishment.
Founded in 2004 by then-undergraduate student Katrina Marshall, Jireh’s was initially established as an ad hoc committee in the Association of Black Students (ABS). The name Jireh’s comes from Jehovah Jireh, which means “The Lord will provide,” a biblical reference to Genesis 22:14.
Due to Jireh’s goal of growing beyond the St. Louis community and becoming a non-profit organization, the group has separated from ABS. While ABS still provides Jireh’s resources in the form of volunteers at the dinner, other organizations such as small businesses, churches and individuals in the St. Louis community provide all other resources, including finances and food.
According to Marshall, all of the program’s donors began through personal contacts in the area, including those with cooking skills and those who were willing to help the cause.
Marshall is still involved with the group, and as a part of its expansion as a non-profit, she plans to make Jireh’s a year-round contributor to the St. Louis community.
“We can get help from places like Einstein’s Bagels, because they understand that times are really hard now and it’s really been good to see how people in big organizations have big hearts too,” junior Njaimeh Njie, who volunteered at the event this year, said.
Kathryn Brown, a sophomore who participated in the event both last year and this year, said that she may have gotten more out of the event than the people they fed did.
“I think we all went into the event thinking that we were going to help them, to lift their spirits, and it was interesting how as the night went on I began to think the exact opposite,” Brown said. “I would say that through my interactions with the families that were there, I actually got more out of the night then they did.”
Brown added that support was mutual between the dinner’s attendees and volunteers this year.
“Several of the women told me how proud they were to see an African-American woman attending Washington University, and to stay strong. I wasn’t expecting them to be encouraging me; I thought if anything I’d encourage them,” she said.
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